Present day air data systems are comprised of one or more conventional probes or ports, such as static ports, pitot tubes, pitot-static tubes, and angle of attack (AoA) vanes. The probe(s) and port(s) conduit air external to the aircraft to a line-replaceable unit (LRUs), containing both the pressure sensor(s) and electronics. The LRU then converts the pneumatic pressure into flight parameters such as altitude, air speech, AoA, Mach number, etc. for use in the aircraft's systems. Alternatively, an LRU may convert the pneumatic pressure into a temperature corrected digital representation, using an Air Data Module (ADM) for consumption by other systems on the aircraft.
Another version of a present day system is one comprised of a combination of a probe(s) or port(s), a pressure sensor(s) and electronics to form one LRU. In this system, all sensing, analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion, and computation is performed in a single LRU. More specifically, the electronics convert air pressure that the probe(s) or port(s) conduits to the electronics into flight parameters, such as airspeed and altitude. This combined LRU, an example of which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,620,495, senses any combination of static, pitot, and AOA, and computes flight parameters in the LRU sending those parameters to other systems on the aircraft bus.